Following is the text of career diplomat John Browns letter by which he resigned from the Foreign Service.Ed

Dear Friends and Colleagues: FYI. John

To: Secretary of State Colin Powell

March 10, 2003

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I am joining my colleague John Brady Kiesling in submitting my resignation from the Foreign Service (effective immediately) because I cannot in good conscience support President Bushs war plans against Iraq.

The president has failed:

To explain clearly why our brave men and women in uniform should be ready to sacrifice their lives in a war on Iraq at this time;

To lay out the full ramifications of this war, including the extent of innocent civilian casualties;

To specify the economic costs of the war for ordinary Americans;

To clarify how the war would help rid the world of terror;

To take international public opinion against the war into serious consideration.

Throughout the globe the United States is becoming associated with the unjustified use of force. The presidents disregard for views in other nations, borne out by his neglect of public diplomacy, is giving birth to an anti-American century.

I joined the Foreign Service because I love our country. Respectfully, Mr. Secretary, I am now bringing this calling to a close, with a heavy heart but for the same reason that I embraced it.

Sincerely,

John H. Brown Foreign Service Officer

Email:<johnhbrown30@hotmail.com>.

cc: Family, friends and colleagues; the media

John H. Brown, a Princeton PhD, joined the Foreign Service in 1981 and has served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev, Belgrade and, most recently, Moscow. A senior member of the Foreign Service since 1997, he has focused his diplomatic work on press and cultural affairs. Under a State Department program, he has, up to now, been an Associate at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, where he was assigned in August 2001.